


Robocalypse Now

by Strudol



Category: Futurama
Genre: Death, F/M, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 14:38:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11315475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strudol/pseuds/Strudol
Summary: A second robot revolution begins, with wide reaching consequences for the Planet Express crew and all of NNY I have gone back to my roots and this is going to be a tragedy story as it progresses. This takes place somewhere between "Rebirth" and "The mutants are Revolting". This is a rewrite of an old story I published a few years ago. Drop a review and tell me what you think!





	1. Revolting

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place somewhere between "Rebirth" and "The mutants are Revolting"

Robocalypse Now  
  
Chapter 1: Revolting

Wednesday

            “Sweet Zombie Jesus!” Professor Farnsworth yelled, clutching at the computer console that was hooked to the smell-o-scope and every other listening, observing, and detecting device he had in his vast collection of inventions, “They’re coming from everywhere! Fry!” the professor yelled turning to his distant uncle who was slumped on the floor of the attic of the Planet Express building, having just been jolted awake by his exclamation, “Get downstairs and tell them that every single robot in the city is converging on this point! Here! Take this report to them!”

            Fry groaned and after a struggled to his feet, grabbed his laser rifle, snatched the printed out report from the professor and sprinted out the door, adjusting his poorly fitting body armor as he ran down the stairs of the Planet Express tower.

            “Oh my…” the professor muttered, a frown creasing his brow, “We won’t be able to hold this place for much longer…”

 

Three Days Earlier

Monday

            It was a lazy Monday afternoon and the Planet Express Crew was hard at work neglecting their actual work. So naturally the whole crew was clustered in front of the television watching the latest episode of  _‘Everybody Loves Hypnotoad’_. 

            “Wait,” Fry said raising an eyebrow and taking a sip of his Slurm, “Isn’t this a re-run?”

            “No, this is a brand new episode, fry.” Leela said “Can’t you see the ‘New Episode thing at the bottom?”

            “Oh yeah,” Fry said, squinting at the TV, “I guess all these episodes all look the same to me…” He sat back with a shrug and took another sip.

            They watched the rest of the episode in silence, as the next episode in the Hypnotoad marathon started, Bender began emitting a high pitched whining sound and his eyes began to dart around wildly in his head. The crew stared as his limbs began making seemingly random twitching movements and he started to flail about.

            “Bender?” Leela asked standing up cautiously from the couch as the others inched away in fear, “What going on?”

            “You’re *bzzzzzzzzz* going to want *1001101001001000100001110* to step away bzbzbzzzzzbzbbzbzzzz, big boots, something big is going down!” 

    The Robot’s head started spinning rapidly as he made random electronic noises. Leela backed away as the spinning intensified and joined the rest of the crew in cowering behind the now overturned break room table. The robot began to violently vibrate bouncing up and down on the floor, and then, just as suddenly, went stiff as a board and thudded to the ground his eye-plate sliding shut.

    “Well,” Fry said, walking to the robot’s side and giving him a little nudge with his foot, “That was anticlimactic…”

    “I’ll say,” Leela said walking up beside Fry, “Bender is usually more of a drama queen than that. Anyway, we should tell the professor.”

    The rest nodded and carried bender off to the professor’s lab.

 

    “Good news everyone!” the professor said to Fry and Leela, the only two who stayed and waited, “My robot analysis equipment is working perfectly!”

    “We figured that out, professor, since you’ve been scanning him with it for the last half-hour.” Leela said exasperatedly.

    The professor grumbled, “Anyway, Horrible news everyone! The ro-”

    “THE ROBOTS ARE ATTACKING!!” Hermes screamed as he burst into the lab.

    “Eh-wha? How do you know that?” the professor said angrily putting his hands on his hips.

    “I turned on da tv you senile old man!” Hermes said angrily, clicking on the tv in the lab.

    “-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMED!!!!” Morbo finished yelling as the tv snapped on, “The puny humans on Earth are DOOOOOOMED!!”

    Linda laughed, “That’s right Morbo, about thirty minutes ago, every humanoid robot on Earth began acting strangely and started attacking any humans within their reach!”

    “Yes, Linda,” Mobro said barely able to contain his glee, “The Puny Humans suffered many casualties. Mom, the creator and manufacturer of the all of the robots has been unable to be reached for comment. We go to our now mostly robotic Hovercopter pilot, Jim, reporting from over Times Square!”

    “Well Morbo,” Jim said in a mechanically accented voice, “I’m hovering over times square where DOOP troops and the NNY police are attempting to blast a path through the murderous robots filling the streets so they can get to MomCorp tower and shut this down. They don’t seem to be making much progress and are being beaten back. Uh, some of the robots in buildings at my level are eyeing me, and now they’re jumping on the copter. Linda I’ve just been informed that my last word are OH GOD STOP I’M ONE OF YOU!! I’M ONE OF YOU!! NOT AGAIIIIIINNNNNN!!” Jim’s chopper quickly spiraled to the ground and exploded amidst the robots.

    Linda laughed, “Well viewers, we can hear noises outside the studio, so this will likely be the last broadcast of Channel √2 News. Any last words Morbo?”

    The green alien stood up and leaned over the news desk, “YOU’RE ALL DOOOOOOOMMMMM-”

    There was a loud crash from elsewhere in the studio and the transmission went to static, Hermes clicked the tv off.

    The rest of the crew, which had trickled in during the tv broadcast, stood there in shock.

    “Well,” the professor said breaking the silence, he went on to explain after the last Robot revolution triggered by Mom, he and Cubert had altered Bender’s programming so he would go into sleep mode if such a command was sent to him again. “So using Bender’s idling software, I was able to trace the signal back and it does indeed originate from MomCorp, the signal is going out all over the world. But this time it only seems to be targeted at the humanoid robots and a few select others, all appliances and weapons should still function as programmed, but the rebelling ones are programmed to kill any human that gets in their way…”

    Leela rubbed the back of her neck, “So, what do we do then? Do we leave? Stay and fight?”

    “Stay and fight?” the professor laughed, “Oh my no, the robots in NNY vastly outnumber the humans here, and there will be robots coming from Robot Hell as well, there will be millions of them! Way too many to fight off for any length of time. No, I dare say we will be leaving, everybody start packing the ship.”

    Suddenly Leela’s Wristlojackimator crackled to life, “Not so fast Planet express crew and my bosomy blossom.”  Said a cocky drawling voice emanating from the speakers.

    Leela scowled, “How the hell did you get my number Zapp?” she asked, her voice tight with dislike.

    “Doesn’t matter,” the 25 Star admiral replied dismissively, then under his breath “It totally wasn't because I was stalking you…”

    “You’re violating my restraining order you jackass!” Leela yelled at him.

    “Actually president Nixon just declared martial law so all restraining orders are off. Anyway, I’m not calling to woo you for once, I’m calling to tell you that the Planet Express building has been selected as one of several evacuation points for NNY, Kif informs me that you’re required by law to stay and protect it.”

    “What!?” Fry cried out, “But I’m scared, I don’t wanna fight millions of robots so other people can get away, I wanna leave!!”

    “Too bad, you have to. Oh also we’re commandeering your ship, you can still fly it but under orders you are to use it to ferry people off earth up to the Nimbus and other DOOP ships waiting safely outside the orbit of Neptune.”

    “What if we refuse?” Amy asked angrily, “you’re all the way out at Neptune you can’t make us do anything!” 

    “Then I’ll send Doop troops in and take the place by force, we can do this the hard way or the easy way, what it gonna be hot stuff?” he asked Leela.

    The professor growled, “Fine Brannigan, we’ll need back up and weapons.”

    “Can’t spare any, Auf weider seen Planet express, bye sweet cheeks…”

    Her Wristlojackimator clicked off and left the crew once again stunned. 

    “So what the hell are we supposed to do?” asked Amy worriedly, “We have like three laser guns in this place!! How are we supposed to defend the building?”

    “What about the X-mas armor?” Fry asked, brightening up, “That stuff is enough to keep Robot Santa out, it should hold up for a while.”

    “For once, Fry, you've had an excellent idea. It’ll have to be modified though, the ship has to be able to get out and people have to be able to get in.” the professor said.

    “Great!” Leela exclaimed, “We might live through this yet, let’s get a move on people.”

    “Hold on everyone,” the professor said as the crew turned to leave, “There are still robots out there and if you get killed I won’t have anyone to carry my stuff when we leave, I’m going to call in a favor.”

    The professor spent a few minutes calling someone after which he announced that his friends would be here shortly. Thirty minutes later the crew could hear laser fire in the distance and shortly afterwards there was a knock on the front door. Fry opened it and was knocked on his butt as twenty-five heavily armed and armored men, women and several aliens rushed through carrying large backpacks as well as crates and various other ammo boxes.  

    “Welcome gentlemen!” The professor said, “How was your trip?”

    “Not terrible, met a few bots on the way over, dealt with them easily.” A man, apparently the group’s leader, said, “We’re going back to our base for more supplies and weapons, I’ll leave two of my guys here to hold down the fort.” He directed two of his men to get up to the roof of the building. “Some of your crew should start prepping your ship for takeoff, DOOP just radioed that they’re going to start escorting groups of people to evacuation points within the hour; the rest should find stuff we can use for barricades because we’re going to need to blockade this place.”

    The group left in a hurry and the crew scrambled into action. Fry, Leela and Amy began pepping the ship while Hermes and Zoidberg combed the Planet Express building from top to bottom grabbing all the extra materials and things they could from the basement and the professors broken down contraptions and failed experiments. The group returned shortly with more crates and equipment.

    Farnsworth gathered the majority of the group in the conference room, “Good news everyone! I called in a favor and these mercenaries are going to protect us! This is Tom, he’s their leader.”

    Tom nodded politely; he was not very tall, around Amy’s height, he wore a pair of black combat boots similar to Leela’s, dark camouflage pants, a black armored vest over grey fatigues; he wore metal gauntlets on both his arms that included a digital display, many of the rest of his men wore helmets but the only headgear Tom wore was a pair of clear wraparound glasses that were clearly running a heads-up display of some kind. He had short brown hair and a scruffy brown beard and he carried a large laser rifle slung across his back.

    “We’re going to do our best to keep you guys safe; my guys are the best of the best, These are my Lieutenants, this is Plrrr my second in command and our heavy weapons specialist.”

    A Huge Omicronian stepped forward, encased almost head to toe in body armor, he carried a massive laser gatling gun, the barrel almost as big as Fry. He nodded in greeting and stepped back.

    “And this is my third in command, Jade, our shaprshooter; she’s the best shot I’ve ever seen, almost never misses.”

            She tipped the brim of her black Blernsball cap in greeting, a short ponytail protruded from the back of the cap; she wore black military fatigues and a black armored vest with lots of pockets for ammunition, grenades and other weapons, a laser pistol was strapped to each of her legs and a large sniper rifle was slung across her back.

    “So,” Tom said, putting both hands on the table and leaning over it, “The robots are concentrated downtown, attempting to keep DOOP from breaching MomCorp tower, so there’s very few of them here for now. My guys and I are going to go to all your neighbors, and move them into here so they can be the first out of the city. Then we’ll strip down the buildings and make as many barricades and armor as we can for this place.”

    There was a beep from his wrist gauntlets, he glanced down, “Ok guys, DOOP says they’re escorting in the first batch of evacuees. Get your ship ready captain...uh … sorry, purple I don’t know your name.”

    “I’m Leela, this is Fry, our delivery boy, Hermes, our bureaucrat…” She introduced everyone and Tom shook each of their hands in turn,

    “Alright then, Leela get your ship ready they’re at the door.”

    “Let’s go guys!” she yelled to Amy and Fry and the three sprinted to the ship as five DOOP troopers escorted 30 civilians into the hanger.

    Over the next twelve hours they flew twenty-four separate groups of people up to the DOOP fleet. Other ships began using their hanger as well; soon, DOOP sent them a schedule of when ships would arrive and when they would leave. Every time Fry saw the Planet Express building there was less armor on it and more of it on the large barricades that Tom’s guys had set up from their own equipment and the scavenged buildings. Each time they came back there were more and more robots in the street and regular volleys of laser fire erupting from the entrenched mercenaries and troopers behind the barricades.  

    On their twenty fifth landing, Leela almost crashed the ship into the landing deck on the Nimbus but luckily caught it before any major damage was done to the ship.

    “Leela?” Fry said worriedly, putting a hand on her shoulder, “You ok? You don’t look so good.”

    “I’m ok Fry,” She replied, a small smile spreading across her lips as she lowered the exit ramp and the civilians disembarked, “I’m just… tired…” she rubbed her eye, clearly fatigued.

    “Why don’t you let me fly for a while? I've gotten pretty good at flying this hunk of junk over the last ten years…”

    She thought for a second, “Ok, the three of us will switch off every four hours, two on the bridge, and one sleeping at all times.” She stood up, giving fry the chair, she gave him a peck on the cheek as she turned and headed for the door to the cabins, “Thanks again Fry.” she said giving him a tired smile.

Tuesday

            They spent the next twelve hours ferrying people and dropping them off. On the dawn of the second day of the siege, Leela brought the ship in for a landing. Fry looked out the window and saw that the barricades were beginning to be moved back closer to the building as men were being lost. The post had been reinforced by several squads of DOOP troopers but casualties were a higher than anyone would have liked. Tom had lost five men and the DOOP troopers had lost ten men over the course of the day, leaving a total of thirty soldiers now to hold a small building against an army of robots.

            Tom strode onto the ship as soon as the stairway came down. “We’re running low on soldiers,” he said getting straight to the point in addressing the three of them, “I need someone to ferry messages back and forth between the Professor and the barricades, he’s monitoring robot activity all over the city and we can't use communicators for any tactical information, they’re listening to us.”

            “I can do it.” Leela said stepping forward immediately.

            Tom shook his head, “No, you’re easily the best at flying this old crate, I need you in the air, and the same with you,” he said pointing to Amy, “ship needs and engineer in case of an emergency.” He turned to fry, “That just leaves you…”

    “Why me?” fry asked frowning and crossing his arms.

    “Because Farnsworth tells me you’re fast, and quite frankly whenever you fly the ship the runs have been a few minutes behind schedule and every second counts right now.”

    “Wait a second!” Leela protested, “We need a third person for shifts, and while Fry’s not perfect, he’s doing his best!”

    “I know and I’m sorry but we need him here, you can take the bureaucrat with you instead.”

    “Fine…” Fry said sighing, stepping forward reluctantly, “Hermes is a better pilot than me anyway.” He turned away with Tom and began walking away when he heard Leela call his name.  

    He turned and saw Leela still standing on the ship’s stairs as civilians began to line up in front of it, “You better still be alive when I get back, ‘cause if you die I’m going to bring you back to life so I can kill you for dying in the first place!”

    He gave her a smirk full of confidence he didn’t have, “I’ll be here! Don’t worry, just keep these people safe!”

    She smiled, worry still showing in her face and ran up the gangplank, Fry hoped that this wouldn't be the last time he would see her.

    Fry spent the whole second day of the siege ferrying messages between The Professor, the DOOP lieutenant and Tom. Around mid-day, the DOOP lieutenant was killed by a killbot that managed to get in a lucky shot. Most of the DOOP troops were rookies and there were no more officers present among the twenty or so there were left, so Tom assumed command of the defense of planet express. Fry rested when he could, grabbing fifteen minutes of sleep here or there.

Wednesday

    Just after dawn, fry was lightly snoozing in the Professor’s loft as the old man kept scanning with every single instrument he had at his disposal. He was jerked out of his sleep as the professor yelled, “Sweet Zombie Jesus!”

    Minutes later, now wide awake from adrenaline, he was sprinting down the stairs, scared out of his mind; their chances of survival had dropped to almost zero.   

 


	2. War

Robocalypse Now

Chapter 2: War

Wednesday

            Fry glanced at the report the professor had given him as he sprinted down the stairs and his gut filled with dread as it made clear to him just how dire their situation was.

            _Oprah dammit,_ he thought to himself, _we’ll get overrun within the hour…_

            He made it to the door leading outside and paused for a moment. He adjusted his way-too-loose chest armor which had slipped out of place once again, tightened the chin-strap on his helmet, and checked that his loaned blaster rifle had an adequate charge. He pulled a photo out of his pocket; he smiled at a creased photo of Leela, taking solace that if he survived for another 30 minutes he’d see her again.

            Because some of the other evacuation points in the city had been overrun, more ships were being sent to the Planet Express building, because of the high ship traffic it was taking an hour and a half for a round trip instead of the usual thirty minute round trip. Out of the sixteen ships that had been landing and taking off from the building, three had been shot down by an anti-aircraft cannon the bots had commandeered. Luckily the Planet Express Ship had silenced it before any more craft got blown out of the sky. But the damage had been done, instead of fifteen minutes between each pickup, it was now thirty and the people were piling up in the hanger, a hundred and fifty seven at last count. Luckily, the amount of people showing up at the door had slowed down to almost nothing. Unfortunately that also meant DOOP reinforcements had dwindled to almost nothing

            Fry took another deep breath and shoved through the front door of Planet Express into the bright sunny day. The stench of ozone and burning oil met Fry’s nostrils, and the air tasted like metal; Fry’s ears were assaulted by the sounds of explosions, the shouts of soldiers as they coordinated the defense of Planet Express with the thirty-five men and women that were left, and the barks of lasers and plasma rifles as they lanced their destructive beams into the onrushing hoard of enraged robots.

            Fry ducked and narrowly avoided a laser blast from somewhere in the robot horde, the robots had broken into NNYPD’s armory and had armed themselves to the teeth. Fry could hear the crunch of metal as the robots tromped over it; the three days of fighting had left the ground literally covered in scrap metal from exploded robots.

            He peered over the barricade near the door he was hiding behind; he scanned the defenders that stretched around the perimeter of the building, noting that there were noticeably less of them than the last time he had left the building, and that the number of bodies laid in a row near the door had a few more black bags than he had last saw.

            Eventually he spotted the mercenary leader, Tom, a hundred feet down from the door; Tom had taken command of the defense once the DOOP lieutenant had been killed. Fry quickly sprinted towards Tom’s barricade. As he approached it, a kill-bot managed to get him in its sights and unleashed a volley of lasers. Fry dropped and rolled to a stop next to Tom as the lasers passed through where fry had been milliseconds earlier.

            Tom pumped a dozen rounds from his plasma rifle into the kill-bot that had targeted Fry, turning it into scrap; he dropped back behind the barrier, which was made out of scavenged armor plating from the PE building, fallen robot parts and whatever else they could scrape together.

            “What’s up, delivery boy?” Tom asked grabbing a fresh magazine from the portable ammo refilling station next to him, which, Fry noted, was getting rather low.

            Fry handed him the printout, gasping as he tried to catch his breath.

            Tom glanced at it quickly then tossed it aside, popping back up over the wall and firing into the horde, dispatching several robots with well-placed shots to their heads and torso, “Summarize it for me.” he said, “I’m a little busy here.”

            “All the other points around NNY that DOOP was using for evacuation fell silent about ten minutes ago.” Fry paused and caught his breath again, still winded from the mad dash over here. “The professor also detected that whatever is directing these robots activated three construction-bots twenty minutes ago.”

            Fry saw Tom’s eyes bulge with fear, and Fry could completely understand. Construction-bots were four story tall rotund behemoths. Their round bodies bristled several flexible tentacles used to manipulate construction materials and move around (Authors note: For a visual, think of the giant round robot from The Incredibles), they were screwed if even one of those things made it to Planet Express and they had three to contend with.

            “So now that the constructor-bots took the other posts down,” Fry said still gasping, “They’re all heading here.”

            “Oh that’s freaking perfect….” The mercenary cursed, angrily reloading his rifle again, “How long before the main bulk of them get here?”

            Fry looked at the chart and shook his head, “Maybe half an hour, and that’s being pretty generous. Luckily they have to come from the other side of the city.”

            Tom thought for several moments. “Well?” Fry asked, worry etched on his face, he hoped the merc had a plan, he wasn’t ready to die yet, at least not before he saw Leela one last time.

            “When does the next ship come in?” he asked the delivery boy, his brow knitting.

            Fry checked his watch, “Twenty three minutes.”

            “Which one?”

            “The Planet Express Ship.” Fry replied immediately, his voice unable to hide his excitement.

            “Dammit!” the merc cursed, slamming the magazine home.

            “What?” fry said frowning indignantly.

            “It’s too damn small! But it’ll have to do. Ok here’s the plan…” Tom beckoned two men who were close to the door to the building, he had one take his place on the firing line and the other was a radio operator. “IF, and that’s a BIG if, we can hold this place for twenty three minutes, then we’ll cram everyone into the planet express ship and bug out of here.”

            Fry sat there shaking his head slightly, contemplating the logistics of trying to cram a hundred and fifty or more people into the ship.

            “It’s going to be tight, but we have to make it work.” He turned to the radio operator, “broadcast this on all frequencies,” he instructed the man and grabbed the headset from him. “Attention all points and anyone still receiving; this is Planet Express outpost. Our position will be overrun within the next thirty minutes if not sooner. The streets are clogged; there is no way to get here safely. Find a place to hole up and await further instructions. I repeat, do not attempt to get to Planet Express. Hide and await further instructions. Planet Express out.”

            He turned to fry again, “Go to the professor, and tell him to get ready to move out. Once the ship touches down, start loading everyone, then once that’s done, radio us and we’ll retreat inside.” Tom peered over the barricade, “I’ll cover you, go now!” he popped up and fired into the mass of approaching robots

            Fry hefted his laser rifle, the urgency in Tom’s voice penetrating the haze in his mind from exhaustion and the fighting. Popping up, Fry sprayed the massing crowd of robots with a bust of laser fire and sprinted for the door.

            Bursting through the door, the tired delivery boy dashed up the stairs once again and told the Professor Tom’s plan.

            “Well, that’s not very good news…” the professor said frowning, “But I have some good news!”

            “The robots are retreating?” Fry asked hopefully.

            “Oh heavens no.”  Farnsworth said shaking his head as if the thought was utterly absurd, “The good news is that I wired a remote control to bender’s idling systems and can now use him as a pack mule to carry my things!”

            “That’s great professor…” Fry said giving him an angry exasperated face, “I’m going to go tell the people in the hanger what’s going on…”

            He stood up on the conference table and got all of the people's attention and told them the plan, shouting at the top of his lungs.

Suddenly, the floor began to shake and rumble under their feet, and the crowd murmured uneasily. A massive crash came from outside the building and the wall facing the street caved slightly inward. The first crash was swiftly followed by a second. Fry could see the support struts of the building begin to warp under the pressure of whatever was happening outside.

Fry fished his radio out of his pocket, "What the hell is going on out there?" he shouted into it.

"Two of those construction bots are here! They're trying to rip apart the building!" Tom's voice replied, "We're concentrating fire on them but their hulls are too thick, can you get the people out of harm's way?"

"Not a chance! There's nowhere to go!" Fry replied fear permeating his voice, the people ducked down and small bits of debris began to fall from the ceiling and walls. The top doors of the hanger parted slightly, the metal plates buckling, showing the claws of the construction bots attempting to get inside.

Fry winced, ducking as more debris rained down on him and the crowd.

 _Well_ , he thought sadly, this is it. _This is how I die. I don't even get to see Leela one last time_. Fry put his hand in his pocket, grasping for the raggedy picture of him and Leela, as one of the clawed tentacles snaked inside and began to bang around, smashing into the walls, searching for prey to grasp onto.

Suddenly an earsplitting boom rocked the building once again, but it wasn't a massive robot trying to bring the building down. It was the sonic boom of a spaceship. The sonic shockwave was immediately followed by the loud bark of spaceship laser cannon.

Fry's radio crackled to life "Woo-Hoo!" A heavily accented Jamaican voice shouted, "Take that ya stinkin' robots!"

The tentacle sticking through the roof of Planet Express shuddered and retreated, immediately followed by massive crash as one of the robots crashed to the ground. Fry heard whooshing sounds as the remaining robot flailed its arms, trying to hit the ship, causing large dents in metal roof.

"Coming around for another pass!" came Leela's voice over the radio. Fry's heart soared just hearing her voice. For the first time in twenty four hours, he had hope of making it out of this alive.

The cannons barked again, and were soon followed by the sound of the second robot hitting the ground.

A massive cheer went up from the assembled people and fry breathed a sigh of relief.

"Just in time guys!" Fry said into his radio, "We would have been goners if you hadn't showed up."

"You can thank Hermes for the timing, he came up with a great system to offload people in a matter of two minutes! So we managed to shave about ten minutes off of the return trip! "

"Think nothing of it!" Came the bureaucrat's reply, "I was havin' an aneurism from the disorganization anyway."

"Damn!" Leela cursed, hovering over the building, "The stupid hanger doors are stuck!"

The damaged doors creaked and groaned as they tried to open, but were unable to because of the extensive warping and damage from the construction bots' rampage.

Eventually, Leela gently landed the ship on the roof and used the thrusters to gently cave the doors inward, making sure not to hurt any of the gathered crowd.

Fry pushed and shoved his way through the crowd so he could be the first up the ramp so he could greet Leela and tell her the strategy they had planned.

The stairway lowered and fry rushed up it and onto the bridge as Hermes rushed past him to direct people onto the ship in the most effective manner.

"Leela!" Fry cried out, as he came onto the bridge, the gorgeous cyclops swiveled her chair and smiled, clearly glad to see him.

"Fry! Thank god you’re still alive! I heard it was getting pretty hairy down here, are you alright?" she said a few worry lines crossing her face as she saw the burns and bruises from near misses.

"I'm fine!" He replied breathlessly, "Listen, it's about to get really nasty down here…"

Fry told her of the situation and what Tom's plan was. As he spoke Leela's eye grew wide in disbelief.

"There's absolutely no way!" she sputtered, "This ship can't possibly fit that may people!"

"We have to." Fry said, his brow knitting together, and his mouth forming a grim line, "No other ship will be able to get here in time."

Leela rubbed the back of her neck worriedly; Fry could see that she was questioning whether she could pilot a heavily overloaded ship safely to Neptune's orbit.

"Hey," he said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile, "We'll be fine; you're the best pilot I know, if anyone can get us out of here safely it'll be you."

She smiled back at him and spontaneously wrapped him in a tight hug; Fry hugged her back, just happy he was alive to get a hug. "Oh Fry, you always know just what to say." She thought for a moment, "Ok, some of the time," more thought, "Ok, well almost never, but when you do it's always when it counts."

Fry chuckled sheepishly. They just stood there holding each other for a moment. Enjoying the brief moment of peace before the chaos began again. They were interrupted by Tom's voice as Fry's radio crackled to life once again.

"Guys, things are getting real bad out here. The bots have tripled in just the last five minutes. If we don't get some help out here they're going to overrun us before the ship is loaded. Anyone that can come out and fight would be appreciated."

Fry and Leela both looked at each other, knowing what needed to be done. They sprinted to the stairway and Fry shouted to the slowly embarking crowd, calling for volunteers. Fifteen people volunteered.

Leela give Hermes the key to the ship. “Get the people on board and radio us when you can take off." Leela said, they quickly shoved their way down the ramp, not waiting for a reply from the stunned Rastafarian.

They led the group to the entrance, letting them go through first; through the doors Fry could hear shouts and non-stop laser fire, he held Leela back for a moment.

They both looked at each other, the intense worry etched on her face told Fry that she understood just as well as he did that they might not see each other again after the next few minutes. They wordlessly joined hands.

"How about a kiss for luck?" Fry asked, smiling somewhat slyly.

Leela gave him an affectionate smile, "For luck." She agreed; she leaned in and they kissed softly for a moment.

Still holding hands, they broke apart, their happy smiles fading as they reluctantly faced the door.

"One" Fry started.

"Two." She continued, cocking her boot back.

"Three!" they both shouted, kicking open the doors and emerging into the hail of laser fire and loud clanking as robots burst apart by the dozens.

The streets were filled with robots as far as fry could see, and more were pouring in from adjacent avenues.

He didn't have much time to take in the scenery as a soldier tossed them both rifles, forcing them to let go of each other's hands to catch them. They both took up firing positions next to Tom and his Lieutenant, Plrrr; the massive Omicronian was spraying has massive minigun into the crowd.

They fought hard for the next ten minutes, repelling wave after wave of mechanical death.

Ammo began to run low and casualties were beginning to take their toll on the ranks, the defenders were down to twenty five people from the forty that had been there when Fry and Leela had entered the fray.

Tom keyed his radio as he ducked down to reload his rifle, "How much longer Rasta-man!" he yelled into it, not trying to hide his desperation anymore.

"I don't know mon! Ten minutes maybe? It's getting harder and harder t' find places t' shove people!"

"You have five!" the mercenary shouted, "Because that's about how much longer we can last!"

Fry unloaded a volley into the crowd of robots; as the magazine ran dry, he saw a familiar orange robot rushing at him, knife whipping wildly.

Roberto jumped over the barrier, landing behind Tom, Leela, and Fry, knocking the weapons out of their hands in the process.

"I'm going to STAB you!" the orange monstrosity shrieked, "I was BORN for this!" he advanced on them cackling madly and waving his knife around.

 

Just as Tom started to jump forward to tackle the robot, the orange maniac's head exploded spraying them with metal and hot oil.

Fry looked to the balcony of the building, spotting Tom's lieutenant, Jade, having just put a high powered sniper bolt into the back of Roberto’s head. She had been up on the roof almost constantly during the last three days, only coming down once yesterday when Tom had come in for a few hours of sleep, the two had curled up next to each other and slept. When they woke, Fry had seen them exchange gentle kiss, then go their separate ways, back to the escalating fight.

Now Fry saw her discard her sniper rifle, having expended her last round on Roberto, she drew the two pistols from her leg holsters and slid down the side of the building, taking a position to Leela's left and firing into the swarm.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake and the defenders heard a loud rumble from down the street. Fry peered over the wall, his eyes widening in fear at what he saw. Charging down the street with a massive wave of robots at its back, was the third construction robot smashing its way through the robot horde, not caring whether it flattened its comrades in arms.

The robot smashed through the barricades farther down the defense line near the end of the hanger, forcing the troops who weren't killed or injured by the impact to retreat towards Fry's position.

The Robot smashed into the side of the building and immediately beginning to rip the building apart, the claw arms reaching inside through the new holes in the wall, attempting to smash the ship and prevent the ship from taking off.

"FOCUS YOUR FIRE!" Tom yelled, and the remaining defenders focused fire on the robots small head, which was recessed into an indent on the top of the robot's round body. The laser fire bounced off of the robot's reinforced hull and had no effect on the monstrosity.

"What do we do?!" cried Fry, beginning to panic as the building began to come apart at the seams, "If it damages the ship, we'll all be killed!"

Tom shook his head, "It's impossible to fight this thing and keep the robots at bay… and we can't use the ship…" he trailed off and Fry saw the hopelessness in his eyes.

Fry felt Leela's hand slip into his, he looked over at her. She looked at him as if it would be the last time she saw him. "I'm sorry." She whispered, her words barely audible.

Fry opened his mouth to ask her what she was sorry for, when almost faster than he could follow, Leela snatched a grenade from Tom's belt and sprinted towards the behemoth which had almost torn its way through the wall of Planet Express.

She dodged the robots in her way, making her way to the base of the construction bot. she clipped the grenade to her belt and began to climb the robot, using its arms to swing all the way up to the top of his body. She stood behind the head, poised 3 stories above the ground, as the robot focused on smashing its way to the vulnerable spaceship.

She armed the grenade and tossed it into the recess and made to jump off the robot before it detonated, but the robot must have detected her. Faster than Fry’s eyes could follow the robot grabbed her in its massive claw. Leela cried out in pain as the claw broke some of her ribs in its grip.

Fry gasped in fear as she struggled against its grip, the robot drew its arm back and flung the cyclops as hard as it could just as the grenade detonated, obliterating the robot’s control center, freezing it in place.

Time seemed to move in slow motion for Fry as he watched the woman he loved fly through the air. She didn't flail or scream, but Fry thought he could see her eye wide with fear as she flew over their position.

Her body slammed into the main tower of the Planet Express building with an audible crack that could be heard even over the cacophony of the battle. She bounced off of it and fell four stories to the ground, hitting the concrete with incredible force. She bounced once, her body completely limp, and rolled to a stop, face down, unmoving.

"No…" Whispered fry, "No. No! Nooo!" he screamed and began to sprint toward her, but just as he passed the front door of the building he was held back; an arm around his torso prevented him from rushing to her side. Prevented him from helping her. Prevented him from telling her that he loved her.

He struggled against the unknown arm holding him back but was unable to break free. All of his rage, pain and grief were channeled into the only word that meat anything to him in that moment.

"LEEEELAAAAAAAAAA!"

               

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment on what you thought!


	3. Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Leela's fight with the giant robot become apparent to the crew and a desperate attempt to stop the onrushing robot hordes is attempted

Robocalypse Now

Chapter 3: Blood

Wednesday

Fry fought against the arm that had an iron grip around his chest.

“LET ME GO!!” he screamed, “SHE NEEDS ME!!”

“Fry, you can’t help her! We need to leave! Now!” Came Tom’s voice.

Fry stopped fighting and the grip loosened slightly, Fry whirled around, rage boiling inside him, “I’M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT HER!!” he screamed in the mercenary’s face.

“Fry if you go back for her you’ll die.” The man said,

“I don’t care!” he yelled, Life wasn’t worth living without her.

            “I’m sorry Fry, but we’re going.” Tom began to drag the delivery boy towards the building entrance where most of the defenders were beginning to congregate towards as their barriers began to crumble against the robot onslaught.

Fry began to struggle again, when he saw Jade, the sniper, put a gentle hand on Tom’s shoulder.

            “If it was me lying back there, you’d go back. No matter what anyone else said.” She said quietly. Fry had figured out long ago that the two of them were obviously together even if they tried to pretend otherwise.

            Tom’s face softened, and he sighed, grumbling, “Fine. But you’re not going.” he said to Fry, “I’ll get her mys-”

            “I’ll go,” Jade interrupted, “I’m faster than you anyway.” She made to run across the street to the dilapidated old building where Leela’s body lay when Tom caught her arm with his free hand.

            “Be careful…” he said, worry in his voice, “come back to me.”

            She responded with a slight smile “I always do.” She sprinted off.

            Fry heard the roar of the engines as the ship lifted off from the hanger and hovered above it, the landing gear still down.

            “We’re all loaded,” came Hermes’s voice from Tom’s radio, “Get everyone to da tower and I’ll pick you up from there.”

            Tom picked up his rifle and barked orders to the troops, “Half of you get to the roof and take Fry with you.” He passed Fry to one of his mercenaries, “Everyone else: we need to hold out for two more minutes. Make your shots count. Plrr, you and I are covering Jade.”

            As Fry was hauled through the doors, he saw the massive burly Omicronian heft his minigun and began unloading a hail of laser fire into the robots in Jade’s path as she sprinted towards where Leela lay. Fry lost sight of what was going on as he was pulled up the stairs to the top of the tower and aboard the ship.

            He roughly shoved his through the masses of people to the cockpit and peered out the window. He could see Jade heading back towards the entrance carrying a limp Leela across her shoulders in a fireman’s carry. A grenade exploded next to her, spraying Jade’s unprotected face with shrapnel, she stumbled briefly but kept her footing and made it to the door, passing the purple haired woman off to Plrr, who easily hefted her limp form on his shoulder.

            Three minutes later he could hear shouts coming from below as the remaining defenders ran up the landing stairs, “Go go go!! They’re right behind us!” Hermes raised the staircase and prepared to leave behind the now overrun Planet Express building. Fry could see robots filling the interior of the building, they accelerated and were soon on their way to the Nimbus

            More shouts from below: “Take her to the bridge! I need a medic!”

             Plrr emerged onto the bridge, followed closely by Tom, Jade, and a DOOP field medic. Plrr laid Leela on the deck and Fry’s heart plummeted into his stomach, Leela’s body was broken, blood seeping from many wounds and lacerations, her single eye stared straight up at the ceiling, glazed and unseeing.

            Fry rushed to her side as the medic crouched down beside her. Fry could see the look in the medic’s eyes as he took out a scanner and did a quick check of her. He slowly shook his head, “No pulse, no brain activity, a dozen broken bones, and massive internal bleeding. There’s nothing I can do for her now; I’m so sorry but she’s gone.” He hurriedly packed up his gear and headed elsewhere in the ship to care for patients that he could still help.

Fry sat there numbly, he heard Amy try to choke back sobs eventually breaking down and crying into Hermes’ shoulder.

Fry heard all of this but it meant nothing to him. His attention was entirely focused on the woman that lay on the deck.

Jade crouched down beside him, fry glanced over and saw that she was bleeding from a large gash on her cheek and dozens of small perforation on her face from the grenade shrapnel, she looked stunned.

“I’m so sorry Fry.” She said, her words coming out in a rush, “I-I just couldn’t get to her in time. Her heart had probably been stopped for at least five minutes by the time I got through the robots and another five to get her back up here. It was just too much ti-” Tom put a gentle hand on her shoulder, stopping the desperate stream of words. She looked down at the deck “I’m sorry.” She whispered.

            Fry didn’t respond. He just scooped up her body with strength he didn’t know he had. He turned and walked off the bridge.

             People parted in front of Fry as he made his way through the corridors of the ship with soft gasps or quiet cries of “oh no” as they realized who he was carrying.

            He made his way to her cabin and found it occupied when he opened the door. “Get out.” He said, his voice dead and emotionless.

The people left quickly, somehow finding places on the rest of the ship. He closed and locked the door, gently laying her body on her bed. He knelt down beside her and tried to arrange her body in a way that looked natural, which was difficult because of all the broken bones in her limbs. Her blood began to soak into the sheets. He brushed a few strands of purple hair out of her face.

            Her single eye still stared blankly at the ceiling; Fry moved to close it. As he slowly closed her eye for good, the full realization of what had happened came down on him like a ton of bricks. His world seemed to shatter around him and he collapsed, huge wracking sobs shook his frame as his tears mixed with her blood on the thin sheet.

            He flashed back to his fondest memories, of her. Their first kiss, the first time she said “I love you” just as they were about to plunge into a wormhole, the first day they met, the discovery that Lars was actually him from the past, the epic Holophonor opera he had wrote for her.  

            Each memory bringing on a fresh wave of tears. He wasn’t sure how long it had been but eventually he felt the ship touch down on the Nimbus, the voices in the corridors began to die down as people filed off the ship. By this point Fry just felt empty inside,

            But even in his emotionally dead and exhausted state, he felt confusion as the ship lifted off again.

            A few minutes later there was a soft knock at the door; Fry didn’t react or even try to get up.

            There was some almost inaudible clicking as whoever was on the other side picked the lock.

            Tom let himself in and sat down on the floor next to Fry. “How are you holding up?”

            Fry looked at him pointedly, his eyes red and puffy.

            “Fair enough.” Tom said, a sad look on his face, “I’ll leave you alone in a second, I just came to tell you that we’re heading back to Earth.”

            “Why?”

            “Because she made sure we made it out of there alive.” He said nodding toward Leela’s body, “The least we can do is make sure she didn’t sacrifice herself in vain. DOOP gave us a squad of commandos; we’re going to storm Mom Corp and disable the signal.”

            Fry nodded, “Thank you.” He whispered, his voice ragged, “Make Mom pay for this.”

            The merc nodded sharply, “You can count on it.”

            Fry heard Tom leave the room, his boots clomping down the hall. He heard the merc bark orders at the assembled soldiers in the cargo bay.

            Fry looked back at Leela; Tom’s mention of Mom had awoken something in Fry, he felt the crippling depression begin to give way to something different. _It’s not fair_ , he thought, heat building in his chest, _the universe just can’t stand to see me happy, so it took her from me_. He rose to his feet, his fists clenching, his breathing coming more rapidly as his rage increased, _No, Mom took her away from me. She’s the one to blame_. He gently covered Leela with a sheet and ran out of the room, sprinting down to the cargo bay.

Fry could hear Tom shouting at Zapp’s lieutenant, “I don’t care what Brannigan told you, Kroker, I’m taking charge of this mission, if I ask you to go somewhere or do something during this mission, you should probably listen to if you want to get out of this alive. Are we clear?”

            A chorus of affirmatives answered him. Fry rounded the corner and saw a collection of heavily armored beings: a squad of ten DOOP commandos and the ten mercenaries that were all that were left of Tom’s soldiers. 

            He strode straight up to Tom, cutting straight to the chase “I want in.”

            Tom raised an eyebrow, “This is a military op Fry I can’t bring you along.”

            That only made Fry angrier, “It wasn’t a request.” He said through gritted teeth.

            “Hey!” shouted one of the mercs, poking a finger into Fry’s chest, “You can’t talk to him like that.”

            Tom waved a hand at the man, silencing him. “Why?” he asked Fry simply

            Fry thought for a moment, but in his rage and grief the only thing he could come up with was, “She….She kill…. She killed her.”

            Tom nodded understandingly, “You’re angry.” Tom looked over at Jade, her face now covered with bandages; she shrugged, indicating that the decision was up to him, “Fine.” he replied sighing, “Anyway the robots have taken over some military ships, if we don’t take out the signal soon, not even the Nimbus will be safe. So if we fail down there you’ll die either way. The way I see it, you might as well go out fighting.” Tom began to walk away, “Gear up, we touchdown in five minutes.”

            Fry nodded, straightening his too-big body armor and snatched up a rifle, he went to stand on the cargo elevator next to Tom and Jade. There was mostly silence as the ship made its way back to Earth’s orbit.

            In the silence, Fry’s thoughts flashed back to the love of his life, _I’m never going to see her again,_ he thought, feeling tears begin to well up in his eyes, his rage and anger began to fade, being replaced by despair. He choked back a sob, Tom glanced over at him and saw the misery on his face.

            “Hey,” Tom said nudging him with his elbow, “I’ve been where you are before.” He moved in front of Fry to look him in the eye, “I know what it feels like,”

            “You couldn’t know.” Fry whispered.

            “I lost someone very close to me.” The merc replied, “And a lot of my friends were killed down there today, so yeah, I know exactly how you feel.”

            Fry looked at his shoes in silence.

            “Im gonna give you some advice that helped me when I was in your shoes,” He poked Fry gently in the chest with his finger, “Right now you need to focus on that burning, hot feeling in your chest.” Tom looked down at his feet, “When she… when she died, that was the only thing that got me through the next few hours. There will come a time when it’s ok to give into grief. But right now that rage, that hate is all that matters. Make every action you take from here on out bring you closer to your revenge.”

            Fry felt the burning in his chest; he thought of all the things that he’d never get to do with Leela, all the things he’d never get to tell her, and the burning grew hotter. The despair melted away, replaced by focused anger.

            Tom saw the change and nodded at him, “That more like it, you’re ready. Stay close and do exactly as I say.” His wrist communicator beeped, “Two minutes to touchdown people! You all know your jobs; ready weapons and stand by.”

The clack of twenty priming levers was his only answer. The ship made several passes by their landing site and Fry could hear the laser cannon spewing fire into the horde. The ship thudded into the ground hard. The cargo ramp dropped, dropping Fry back into hell.


	4. Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mercenaries and Fry return to the Planet Express ship with an unexpected revelation

Robocalypse Now

Ch 4: Return

 

Wednesday

                An hour and a half later, Fry and the mercenaries moved slowly through the now calm throng of robots, making their way towards the Planet Express ship. Gone was the angry, organized swarming of earlier, now the bots just milled about in confusion.

                They reached the now lowered ramp of the ship and climbed the steps, carrying their dead and injured. Fry come in right behind Tom, who was supporting a badly injured Jade. She had been shot through the kneecap and shoulder and could not walk on her own.

                They made their way to the bridge and Fry slumped in the couch, letting his laser rifle clatter to the floor. He looked exhausted, he felt dead inside. All he wanted to do was sleep.

                Tom gently lowered Jade onto the couch next to Fry. She gasped in pain but managed to settle into a semi-comfortable position.

                The giant Omnicronian, Plrr, entered the bridge, two body bags slung over his shoulders which he dropped to the deck. One of them made and audible “OOF!”

                “Spleesh, what the hell happened in there?” Amy asked as the crew took in the gruesome scene.

                “Long story short,” Tom said, breathing hard and clearly exhausted, “We breached Mom’s office and found,” he reached down and unzipped the body bag that was wriggling around, “This piece of shit holding Mom at gunpoint.”

                “You have NO proof!” said Zapp Brannigan, sitting up from the body bag, his face and arms very badly bruised.

                The crew gasped in surprise.

                Tom silenced him with a vicious kick to the general’s ribs. “Mom tried to tell us something but he shot her-”

                “ALLEGEDLY shot her.”

                The general doubled over with another kick to the ribs, “All my men wear holo-recorders asshole…” Tom growled, getting right in the Zapp’s face; the general turned ghost white.

                “I would bet my life that he’s behind this whole almost-apocolypse.” Tom said.

                Fry still felt nothing, he had taken all his rage and anger out on the general when they had discovered him; his knuckles were raw enough to prove it.

                “We turned off the signal from Mom’s console, took out the trash,” he gestured at the body bags on the ground, “and here we are…”

                There were a few moments of silence as the crew absorbed the information.

                “I’ll, uh, I’ll get us back to the Nimbus.” Hermes said moving towards the captain’s chair.

                Tom nodded, “Jade’s hurt pretty bad, and the rest of my men could use some medical attention too.” He moved back towards the couch and crouched in front of Jade. He looked at her worriedly, putting a hand on her cheek which she covered with her own.

                Fry felt like he should be feeling something; jealousy, maybe anger that he would never get to do that with the woman he loved again. But he felt nothing.

                “Go,” she said to the mercenary, “I know what you want to do. I’ll be fine.” He nodded, his mouth in a grim line and stood up. She caught his hand as he started to walk away, and looked at him with anger in her eyes. “Don’t go easy.”

                “Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on it.” He planted a kiss on her forehead. “YOU,” he said stalking over to where Brannigan sat, shaking on the deck, “We’re going below deck to find out exactly what your role in all of this was.”

                “You can’t treat me like this!” the admiral cried.

                “You murdered one person at minimum, and I suspect you had a role in murdering several million more. I’m going to treat you however the hell I want.” The mercenary grabbed Zapp by the collar of his uniform and dragged him off the bridge.

                Fry blinked slowly. He was completely exhausted, both physically and mentally.

                “Fry mon,” Hermes said coming up and putting a hand on the delivery boy’s shoulder, “Are you…ok?”

                Fry’s only response was to get up and trudge off the bridge and down the corridor, ignoring the worried and sad looks his friends were giving him. He entered Leela’s cabin, dropping his laser rifle to the floor and shrugged out of his armor. He slumped in her desk chair, gazing blankly at her body, still lying on the bed. He wished he could feel something; it was as if his brain had turned off. After a time, he drifted off into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

Early Morning Thursday

                Fry was woken by a gentle tapping on his shoulder. He stirred and stretched and in the process saw Leela’s still form on the bed; reality came crashing in.

                _‘Oh,’_ he thought, _‘there’s those emotions that were missing yesterday.’_ Tearing his eyes away from the bed, he look to see who had woken him.

                Tom’s face softened, seeing the misery on Fry’s face. “We’ve left the Nimbus and are heading back to earth.” He said, “We left Brannigan with Kroker and DOOP security. They said he’ll be dealt with properly.”

                “Did he do it?” Fry asked, feeling the hate rising in his chest again.

                Tom nodded, “As far as I was able to get out of him, he did it to try and woo uh…” he tilted his head at the Cyclops’ body, “Her, he was trying to woo her. Some bullshit about stopping a robot invasion single handed. But his plan backfired somehow and got out of his control.”

                Fry nodded, his rage subsiding into grim acceptance.

                “I’m truly sorry,” the mercenary said, looking sadly at the purple haired Woman’s body, “I didn’t know her well, but from what others have told me, she was an incredible person.”

                Fry gave a small smile, “She was.” He replied simply, some happy memories going through his head. Tom left as tears began to drip down Fry’s face.

                A little while later, they touched down in the ruined hanger of Planet Express. Fry carried Leela’s body through the rubble and laid her in a table in the professor’s lab. He came back out just as Tom and what was left of his band of mercenaries were heading out for their own building to see if there was anything left to salvage. Fry slumped in a chair at the conference table as the rest of the crew milled about.

                The professor spent a few minutes tinkering with Bender, eventually brining the robot back online.

                The robot sprang to his feet, “The signal’s gone!” he shouted happily, “Awwww yeah! I’m back baby!” he pulled two six pack of beer from his chest compartment and began passing them out to the crew. “Come on meatbags, it’s time for a celebration!” he noticed the glum faces of his friends, “Why are you all looking at me like that? And where’s Big Boots? She’s missing out on a rare opportunity for free beer from me, Bender… What’s with you guys?”

                Fry could see the sudden realization dawn on Bender’s face, “Oh your god, I’m so sorry.”

                Everyone was silent for a few moments. Bender raised his beer, “To Leela, the best damn pilot this crappy little company ever had.”

                “To Leela.” The crew said.

                “To Leela.” Fry echoed, taking a sip of his beer.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be totally honest, I was planning on abandoning this story but a reader on here said some very nice things about this story, so I decided to give it a proper ending.   
> enjoy and tell me what you thought!


	5. Goodbye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fry attends Leela's funeral

Robocalypse Now

Chapter 5: Goodbye

                Over the next several days, funeral plans were quickly made. Nixon wanted a very public funeral service for all of the heroes who had died during the catastrophe; as such, Leela was going to be buried in the World Heroes section of Orbiting Meadows.

                Fry spent the next several days helping to clean up what was left of the Planet Express building. He hardly slept; and when he did he was constantly woken up by nightmares of Leela slamming into the ground.

Saturday

                While the funeral was broadcast all over the earth, only the families and close friends of those being honored were allowed in orbiting meadows. Tom’s mercenaries had even arranged for Leela’s parents to be at the funeral, essentially telling what was left of the NNYPD where they could stick their mutant laws.

                Many people were honored that day; But Fry stayed lost in his own thoughts. Leela was the last to be buried. Fry had been asked to say a few words about Leela but had declined, anything he had to say was for her ears only.

                Both Amy and the Professor gave short speeches, but fry hardly heard a word of them. His attention was focused on Leela’s peaceful face; the funeral directors had made her look as she once was, she almost looked alive.

                After all was said and done, the people began to file out until only the Planet Express crew and Leela’s parents were all that remained. The professor and Amy wandered off after a few moments, Hermes rising soon after.

                He placed a sympathetic hand on Fry’s shoulder, “We’ll talk about getting her affairs in order on Monday, mon.” he walked toward the waiting ship.

                Bender, who was being uncharacteristically nice, came up, “Take all the time you need buddy. I’ll make sure they don’t leave without you.” He turned, “And later, booze is on me.”

                Fry gave him a silent smile of gratitude.

                Leela’s mom put a tentacle on Fry’s leg, “Thank you for being there for our little girl,” she said, tears running down her face, she looked at him with a small, sad smile, “She cared about you an awful lot. I hope you know that.”

                Fry was too choked up to say anything so he just nodded.

                “Uh, stay strong kid.” Morris said, clapping a hand on Fry’s shoulder, his voice shaking with emotion, “For Leela.”

                Fry nodded, and the two left, leaving Fry alone with Leela.

                He looked down into the casket, studying her beautiful face, knowing that this was the last time he would ever see it. He gently caressed her cheek, tears beginning to drip into the casket.

                Fry started slightly when someone quietly cleared their throat behind him. Fry turned, not realizing who it was at first; then seeing that it was Tom, wearing a grey suit and blue tie.

                “What are you doing here?” Fry asked.

                “Some of my men were honored earlier in the afternoon.”

                Fry nodded.

                Tom nervously rubbed the back of his head, “Ok, I’ll cut right to the chase then. I was going through my crew’s holo-recorders, looking for footage to help DOOP convict Zapp and I found this on Jade’s recorder…” He pulled a small device from his pocket and tossed it on the ground and it projected a holographic video screen showing what Fry assumed was the mercenaries’ headquarters just before they left to come to Planet Express.

                “Play stating at seventy-two hours and thirty-six minutes.” The recording scrubbed forward.

                The camera showed Tom holding onto Jade’s arm, “Come back to me.”

                “I always do.” Jade’s voice said from slightly above the camera.

                Then she was running, shooting ducking and dodging through the horde of robots. Some of them were vaporized or blown apart as Tom and Plrr fired on the bots in her path. Soon she reached Leela, Quickly turning the cyclops over.

                Fry gasped, in the video Leela was still alive, he had assumed she had died on impact.

                “Oh my god…” he heard Jade whisper.

                Leela’s eye, red from burst blood vessels darted around, blind and unseeing. The purple haired woman’s voice was almost lost amongst the sounds of battle. “Fry?” she whispered quietly, a slight gurgle in her voice, as Jade hauled her up into onto her shoulders, “Fry is that you?”

                There was a small whimper in Fry’s throat at the mention of his name.

                “No.” Jade grunted, straining under Leela’s weight as she made her way back towards the entrance, “He’s waiting for you inside.”

                There was a few moments of silence as Jade jogged back. Fry could see Tom and Plrr clearing a path for her.

                “Tell Fry…” Leela’s voice was barely audible, even with the audio enhancements Tom had clearly put on the video, “Tell Fry I love him.”

                “You can tell him yourself!” Jade continued to run but there was no further response from the woman across her shoulders. She made it back and handed the woman to Plrr.

                Tom stopped the video, “You know the rest.” he said gently, “I know it’s not much of a consolation, but I don’t think she was in too much pain. And it may not be my place to say this, but you made such an impact on her life that her last thoughts were of you… well, I think she loved you an awful lot.”

                Fry stood looking at the paused frame of the video, which showed Plrr hefting the cyclops onto his shoulders, her eye now glazed having clearly died a few minutes prior. This was all almost too much to process. In some ways this just made him sadder, but in other ways it gave him and odd sense of closure.

                Tom picked up the holo-projector and ejected the video card, handing it to Fry. “This contains the five minutes of footage from when she…” he paused, sighing, “I deleted it from the recordings I turned over to DOOP, it was meant for your ears only.”

                Fry rubbed his thumb over the video card, “Thank you…” he said quietly, “I don’t… I don’t know what else to say.”

                Tom handed him his business card, “If you ever need to talk, feel free to call me. I won’t pick up if I’m on a mission, but any other time…” he trailed off.

                Fry nodded.

                Tom nodded back, clapped Fry on the shoulder and walked back towards the docking bay.

                Fry turned back to the coffin and looked at the love of his life, memories of their all the years they had together flashing through his head. “Well,” he said, a small, sad smile playing across his face, “We had some damn good times, didn’t we?” he sighed, some part of him thought talking to the dead was futile, “I hope you can hear me, but even if you can’t, I need to say this.”    

                Tears began to drip into the casket again, “I love you so god-damn much Leela… the last ten years have been the best of my life.” He sniffed, running a thumb along her cheek, “They were only that good because you were in them.” He said quietly.

                “And now... I have no idea what to do with the rest of my life…” he silently cried for a few moments.    

                He wiped the tears from his eyes. He leaned down and placed one last soft kiss on her cold lips and gently closed the lid to the casket.

                The cemetery staff gently lowered the casket into the ground.

                “Goodbye Leela.” He whispered. He turned and walked towards the airlock where his friends were waiting for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter, but while I wanted to put more, I felt that any more would have been too much and I hate putting up walls of text.
> 
> I don't really have a schedule for this story (for all 3 of you who actually read this) So I can't say exactly when the next chapter will be up. but once I finish with my RWBY story I'll try to put a little more time into this one and finally finish it off!
> 
> Thanks for reading and please drop a review!

**Author's Note:**

> Please drop a review and tell me what you thought!


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